Meanwhile, THE ARMY TIMES reports, "About 600 soldiers from the 1st Armored Division will deploy later this
year to Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army announced Wednesday. Of those, about 400 soldiers belong to the 1st Armored Division
headquarters at Fort Bliss, Texas. They are scheduled to deploy this
summer to Iraq in support of Operation Inherent Resolve." Corey Dickstein (STARS & STRIPES) adds, "Both deployments are rotations of regular troops replacing units
currently deployed, according to the Army. Therefore, they do not
represent an increase in American forces in either country, an Army
spokesman said." On the topic of troops, W.J. Hennigan (LOS ANGELES TIMES) reports:Even as the U.S. military takes on a greater role in the
warfare in Iraq and Syria, the Trump administration has stopped
disclosing significant information about the size and nature of the U.S.
commitment, including the number of U.S. troops deployed in either
country.Earlier this month, the Pentagon quietly
dispatched 400 Marines to northern Syria to operate artillery in support
of Syrian militias that are cooperating in the fight against Islamic
State, according to U.S. officials. That was the first use of U.S.
Marines in that country since its long civil war began.In Iraq, nearly 300 Army paratroopers were deployed recently to help the
Iraqi military in their six-month assault on the city of Mosul,
according to U.S. officials.

They camp on muddy corners, beside an abandoned mosque and in
the rain-soaked ruins of a soccer stadium — families displaced by
ongoing fighting in Mosul are filling emergency camps in this smaller
city about 20 miles south.Disabled boys arrived in wheelchairs one day last week, and elderly men limped in on metal braces and canes.